Regulation: Minuet over Censorship

Broadcasters usually consider TV
censorship a menace only slightly less lethal than poison gas. Once
released, they say, even the smallest amount of enforced control over
programming will inexorably expand until it eventually envelops and
deadens the most remote corners of the communications industry. Yet at
its annual convention in Washington, D.C., last week, the National
Association of Broadcasterswhich includes station owners and
networkstook a tentative step toward adopting a plan for the
industry's first version of formal censorship.

The proposal is largely the result of a long campaign by Rhode Island...